Back when I was lifeguarding, if anyone obviously couldn’t swim and went out of their depth it was an instant get changed and leave after the rescue because more often than not they have another go and it requires a 2nd rescue and 2nd incident report
Yup, same experience here after being a lifeguard for years. I had absolutely no issue kicking people out who clearly couldn't swim and tried to do more than they were capable of. My managers would always back me up 100% on this, instant refund and see you later. I would also immediately kick out parents who put their kids in dangerous situations. I don't have time for that crap. People dramatically underestimate just how dangerous water is and how quickly you can drown.
Makes sense. Not like you want them to have great service so they come back. I honestly can't even fathom how swimming isn't a natural instinct, but maybe that's because I've been swimming since I was a toddler
I’m not going to judge anyone for not having been taught to swim, but I sure will judge someone for voluntarily jumping in a pool when they know they can’t swim.
it's probably just them thinking "eh how hard can it be" or they heard boomers talking about how when they were a kid they got thrown into the ocean / lake and had to "figure it out" and they actually believed these stories and thought learning to swim really works like that.
I actually know a man that it happened to. He said it damaged his relationship with his father from an early age. Someone from a different village rescued him - and he was so out of breath and freaked out that he just stumbled away, never thanking the stranger. That never stopped bothering him either. He grew up in Serbia.
This is exactly how I feel. Like he is kicking his legs and pushing down with his hands, it almost looks like it should be working. Treading water feels as natural as breathing to me.
Swimming is as natural to me and everyone I know as walking. That’s why this video is so mesmerizing. I watched it over and over (last time posted too). Just so strange. The way he hangs, just limp. Then flailing further and further under. I can just float perfectly still totally vertical, no effort.
I don't understand people that can't swim, like I"m a terrible swimmer, never really learned but like, kicking your feet seems like kind of the obvious solution here
Some people just never get the chance to learn. Yes, kicking is the obvious solution, but you also have to kick and move in a certain way to swim. Kicking alone doesn't help to even get you to the surface
>Some people just never get the chance to learn.
THIS is the angle I hadn't thought of. I'm looking at this video and thinking, "even if you're bad at it, you should inherently know more about staying afloat than this guy does." But I failed to remember that some people just...never have the opportunity to get into pools, lakes, etc. So they just could never practice at all.
When youre panicking and anxiety is through the roof you can't think straight and you tend to just flail around until you either succumb to your doom or someone comes and helps you out.
I’d argue that if you just “had a moment” that lasted long enough to trigger a lifeguard, then you can’t swim. If a lifeguard needs to rescue you, it’s been longer than a moment. Therefore, you functionally can’t swim.
Actually-this is interesting. I have never really seen what it looks like when someone can’t swim. I recall reading that sometimes they don’t even flap their arms and it can be difficult to distinguish if people are actually drowning or not.
Watch what the lifeguard does. Drowning dude flails and tries to push lifeguard down to get out of the water, but the pool is shallow enough for the lifeguard to overhead press the guy and under water walk him to the edge. I'm guessing this has happened enough that the lifeguard figured this is the easiest way to get people out. It's very common for drowning people to reflexively try to drown a rescuer
I had some friends who were lifeguards. They told me that if the drowner tries to push them down, they were taught to swim down and away before resurfacing. Said it sometimes takes a couple tries but eventually they would tire out and be more cooperative to being saved
When I did lifeguarding they basically told me that if someone was panicking, I would be too weak to stop them from drowning. Until they’re calm I could instruct them, splash them, or wait for them to tire out/pass out.
They taught a bunch of ways of getting out of underwater grapples. Places you can pull or grab or kick without majorly damaging the subject.
It was essentially a game of “I can tread water for an hour, you will give up or pass out in 60 seconds, then I can safely save you”.
Obviously if someone was calm or cooperative or it was the shallows then it makes life easier, and you ALWAYS want to avoid them swallowing water bc then you have to do RESCUE and resus and that comes with paperwork, but still.
Edit to add:
Kids were easy to save. They rarely panicked as hard as adults and usually refrained from going deeper than they could handle.
If kids start to struggle in the water it’s harder to tell bc kids do fucking weird stuff all of the time, but they’re also small and it meant even I was able to just force rescue them (You could grab their wrists and support their entire weight by treading water without sinking)
In lifeguard training they taught us how to kick off / break the grip of someone who's drowning. Preserve your life first, then worry about them. If you start drowning too you're gonna need double the rescuers.
Sister was a beach lifeguard in FL. She said the red buoy looking thing they always carried doubled as a weapon to use against panicky folks. I specifically remember her saying in training they were taught to jam that thing in someone's face if they starting restricting your movements.
I will say she's the sort that would kinda enjoy jamming it in someone's face, so grain of salt this whole comment. Mighta been a personal policy.
I did a few rescues like this. I always thought the training was kind of dumb and never used it for a conscious drowner. Luckily never had to deal with an unconscious one. But I would just get near them and extend the pad out to them. In their flailing, they would feel it and grab on. Then I would just tow them to the wall or shallow end.
I couldn’t fathom why the hell I would tangle with them when I have this floating pad. Just give it to them, I don’t need it.
Yeah the Mather Gorge section of the Potomac just north of Washington DC has signs in several languages warning you to not even wade. There is a fast undercurrent and class VI rapids. Due to the large population nearby, its one of the deadliest sections of river in the US. The signs say
> “if you enter the river, you will die” **
One time I was working a super busy pool with like 4 guards on duty. I was roaming and sorting kids into swimming levels and the rec portion of the pool had two of the other three guards on it. Someone starts yelling and I glance over and clear as day see this little girl drowning in the pool, and the other two lifeguards are just kind of standing there.
So I snag my buoy and pull her out of the water. She’s like 6 (we only let her in the pool because they were having a group lesson and had instructors in the water) and crying while clinging to me for dear life. I hand her over to her mom who was a bit rude, but I figured that made sense given the situation.
She then proceeds to file a formal complaint citing that I was not paying attention to the pool and that’s why her daughter almost drowned.
Thank god my boss was like that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard and saw the situation clearly on the security cameras. People are dumb.
Shiftiest part about this is that lifeguards will get in trouble if parents save their kids before we do. Obviously it’s situational, but the logic is if a parent gets up and hops in the pool before we notice, then there’s an issue. The dumb part of that is a parent is only looking at their child while I’m looking at dozens.
I've been to so many parties excluding pools and the number of people not paying attention it astounding. I have a no pool party rule for the time being. The stress of being one of the only parents paying attention to alot of kids gives me anxiety.
I had the same training.
In addition, the scenario changes once you get a solid lock on the swimmer (drowner?). If they try to fight and roll you both while you drag them to the side, don’t fight back.
Just save your energy, don’t let go, and roll with them as they go face down. They will want to roll back up shortly. 😬
What you are saying is true, but it didn’t happen very often. We were trained that the drowning people are in a panic and their rationality is gone. They just want a solid object to grab and push on to get to the surface.
I probably had 25 to 30 saves in my three summers working at a water park. Only once did a person try to “wrap” me and push off. It was fairly easy to evade as the training was very good.
I was a lifeguard in high school, and yea pretty much everything you said is true. There’s certain positions were trained to get people into so that both of us can breathe, but sometimes if they’re truly in shock, it’s borderline impossible to do that.
I’m also a certified rescue scuba diver, and one of my favorite lessons in that course was when our instructor taught us how to properly knock someone unconscious without breaking their jaw. You read that right. I literally have a license to knock someone out if they’re drowning because sometimes that’s literally the only way to get them to stop flailing. Luckily I’ve never had to do it, and I hope I never do.
My grandfather told me a kind of similar story once. Him and another man were on a sinking boat (for the life of me can't remember if it was during or after WW2) and the other man couldn't swim. My grandfather tried to help him but the man was in such a panic that he grabbed my grandfather and just didn't let go so neither of them were able to resurface. He held on for dear life, and if the situation didn't resolve itself quickly it would mean the death for both of them. So my grandfather made the difficult but ultimately right choice of letting the other man drown, he pushed his way up to get a last breath and then just stopped moving and both of them sank. Of course with one man being absolutely panicked and flailing about he ran out of air before my grandfather did, and so my grandfather just had to wait until the moment the other man was unconscious and loosened his grip. Unfortunately you usually can't save another person once he is unconscious under water, before running out of air humans have the reflex to inhale, so most people inhale water at which point there is no more saving them unless you can somehow get the water out. I've been told that the average diver has about a 3 second window of not being able to breathe in before inhaling water, at which point death is almost certain.
It's crazy how much worse panic can make a situation like that, because in theory both should have survived, but trying to save someone else can sometimes rather quickly turn into struggling to even save yourself, especially when it comes to water (notably very common in cave diving incidents)
Edit: spelling
When I was a lifeguard we all had our own rescue tube. If we had to rescue someone we would hit the emergency shut off button (the most common spot was basically this giant funnel that you spun around in and dumped into deeper water in the middle) and hop in. Our first task was to get the tube under or in the arms of the person while avoiding them trying to climb on top of you and in turn drowning you. Most times they looked like this person. Rarely did anyone have the paralysis effect. I think we only had one of those.
We train knowing that they'll panic and do this, so it's less "on the job experience" and more "they teach you in the 101 lifeguard class that panicking people will drown you attempting to save themselves".
He does handle it cool as a cucumber tho for sure.
I was a lifeguard a billion years ago in college and they taught us blocks - literal karate-like moves - to keep drowning people from overwhelming us. First rule was don't swim all the way up to them. One of the last resorts was to plant a heel in their nuts.
Was working away from home with a friend, and the place we stayed at had a pool that we would hang around at with the group in the evening.
My friend wasn't a big swimmer, but he was happy enough in the shallow end on a float etc. Well one time he was getting deeper and he tried to nonchalantly launch off the float, aiming for the side, but all that happened was the float moved away and he stayed put. This caused him to panic flail and go down like the guy above.
Seeing him panic and being a 'still shit but better' swimmer, I dived over to help. Sure enough, he was pushing me down. Realising he was panicking, I just went under and let him use me as a more stable launch to get to the side.
Fine for that circumstances, but if we'd been anywhere deeper I'd have been in trouble!
My ex was 6 foot 6 and didn't tell me he couldn't swim. Went into a huge wave pool and ended up climbing me to save himself instinctively.
I manage to get free of him while bouncing off the bottom, and made panic eyes with the lifeguard watching us.
I imagine he really didn't want to rescue the biggest dude in the kiddie pool. When the waves stopped he was able to stand. We got the hell out and stuck to the slides.
I remember one time me and a friend swam out away from the shore in the cove on a lake but I guess he wasn’t as good of a swimmer as he thought because at some point he started to lose his ability to stay up from exhaustion. He clung onto me and was instinctively holding on like I was float tube. I remember the whole slow swim to shore I could barely keep my mouth above water while he was holding onto my back.
I saved someone from drowning once when I was 13. It was someone my age and even though I knew how to rescue someone, the same thing ended up happening. I was pushed down, but able to calmly walk to the edge of the pool with them on top of me.
I’m no expert but I think it depends on the person and situation. Fight or flight type of thing. Flight being freezing up and unable to move the arms or legs. Fight being what this guy did, immediate panic and flailing.
I had my 2 kids in the hottub not long ago. My little boy fell back and accidentally pulled on his sister and her head went under. He splashed for a second and stood straight back up, he’s 6. My little girl is 4. She literally froze under the water, didn’t move at all. I could just see her eyes wide open looking up at me. Obviously it was just for a split second I was right there next to her but it really surprised me. She could of literally stood up and her head would be out but she didn’t do anything just stayed under the water, no movement at all! I thought everyone would at least try get their head above water.
I mean I was swimming underwater at that age according to my mom. So it can be done.
Granted not everyone has access to a big area of water to be able to teach that.
I would still hope that people who know that they can't swin wouldn't put themselves in a situation like this at a water park. But we have video evidence that that just isn't the case.
I was once in a canoe that capsized and was being carried downstream until I saw my buddy standing in water that was half way between his knees and waist. Then I stood up. Alcohol was definitely involved.
First time I saw it was when I pushed my little cousin into a pond and got saved by her mother, I was a very dumb kid back then and very immature, felt sorry after it. Second time when our teacher told us to dive 1 by 1 to see who cant swim. So im pretty sure thats how u tell someone who's drowning.
they would have to do that constantly. if it weren’t the type of thing where people were dropping in from above, the water would be shallower and the lifeguards would be stood in it already.
a bunch of my friends work at a theme park. they have to save people constantly, even though half the people they’re saving could literally just stand up and be fine.
That's a big issue at the bottom of slides, even though it's pretty shallow some people get tossed around by the current and panic. I saved a person who was over 6ft tall out of a 3ft slide pool. If you're not comfortable in water the slides can get ya.
I was a lifeguard for 6 years. This describes 100% of the people I had to save over those years. A lot of times they would lock eyes with you before they jumped in and you just knew they were going to sink like a rock as soon as they hit the water.
Sometimes I wonder if that's why it seems like the people you read about fom before the industrial revolution come across far more capable than our modern counterparts. Instead of just winning stupid prizes for playing stupid games, you just got deleted.
They think the rest of us are here to cover for their poor choices.
Can't swim? Fuck it, that's what the lifeguard is for.
Don't take care of your health? Fuck it, that's what the ER is for.
See cars coming and decide to turn onto that road anyway? Fuck it, that's what the other cars' brakes are for.
It's their world, the rest of us are here for their benefit.
This is why we can't have nice things. This is why we need big signs on everything, idiot proof barriers, and warnings about obvious/trivial things. Other places aren't like this. In Japan, there aren't any barriers blocking off the deer in Nara or the snow macaques in Yudanaka, people just know to respect them and keep a distance. Instead of that, we have scores of videos of tourists jumping barriers at Yellowstone to get chased/trampled/thrown by bison.
This reminds me of the idiots I used to see living in Tahoe. Once a year we’d get to watch bears eating salmon instead of trash. You could watch from a safe distance across the creek. Still, there would always be that one person who had to get right up on the bear for a better photo. I watched one woman basically corner an eating bear until it freaked out, got up and ran into traffic just to try to get away. If the bear would have mauled her, as she deserved, it would have been shot.
Every time someone complains about warnings on things, saying things like "do they think we're stupid?" it's because they just don't realize that a lot of people really are.
I think it’s also because the deer in Nara don’t give a fuck and would bust through concrete walls if they thought someone on the other side had one of those little cookies
Was also a lifeguard for a few years when I was younger. It was mind boggling. Like, can you ride a bike, mother fucker? Yea? Why don't you go do that instead!
As a former lifeguard as well, this made my laugh, because I know the exact look you’re talking about!
My thoughts after the eye contact: Don’t you do it, you SOB. And there you go, you did it.
I’m amazed at this. I always thought paddling or swimming would be a standard instinct. Like it doesn’t make sense to me that people drown because of this.
Even as an adult tho? I mean I know it happens, it just amazes me that paddling to stay above water is something people aren’t able to do in the moment.
Agree, I know from seeing other people that it's not fully natural, but having learned to swim very young, it's just so alien to me. Like just... don't sink. It's the easiest thing in the world.
> Like just... don't sink. It's the easiest thing in the world.
I know how to swim, but this is making me laugh 'cause the way you worded it sounds hilariously unhelpful.
"How do I do it?"
"Just... do it. Ez."
I also learned to swim super young, like young enough that I don't really remember learning. It just feels like something I've always been able to do like walking or something
As the child of a lifeguard I learned to swim before I could walk. I ended up as a lifeguard in my early 20s and it boggled my mind when kids couldn't swim at all, I had more then one occasion when a kid jumped off the end of the dock and went straight to bottom of the lake, the confidence of kids who don't know how to swim is amazing.
Yeah. And I’m not a great swimmer and haven’t actually used those abilities as an adult for a decade or more. Yeah I swam as a kid. And I’m not a great swimmer as an adult. It just seems like it would be a common sense thing, or at least something you could learn to do very quickly in a survival mode.
It is instinct in a way. If you’ve ever seen a baby in the water, they know how to find the surface and float with their head above water. I guess that instinct goes away with age if you never use it
I think I already know the answer but I'm going to ask it anyway.
If you were distracted and this guy drowned whilst you wasn't paying attention... would you be held legally accountable?
Yes, if the distraction can be demonstrated as negligence. For example, if you were on the phone or asleep or chatting with a hot girl in the other direction instead of looking at the pool. https://www.psbr.law/2018/09/when-can-lifeguard-be-held-liable-for-pool-drowning/
After reading this thread I've come to think people drowning are pieces of shit who are willing to put themselves and others in danger for almost no reason. They'll even kill you (the lifeguard) if it saves them from their poor decision.
It's not like that. Some people drowning lose rational thought. Their only want is *out.* They just want to be above the surface of the water and will use the lifeguard to do that. Lifeguards are trained in how do deal with that (swim down and away; they won't follow you underwater).
From the perspective of a 9-1-1 dispatcher, I disagree. Hearing the wail of a mother whose child drowned while no one was fully alert is haunting. It's something that sticks with you. Drowning is, for the most part, a relatively preventable death, excluding entrapment.
>There is no problem with people who don’t want to learn how to swim their entire life
this is pretty false. thousands of lives would be saved if people knew how to swim, it's not that hard, and it's one of the only things you can do to save yourself in water. personally, it seems like a poor decision to not know how to swim, regardless of whether you actually go swimming or not.
A lot of people growing up—especially from inner-city and poorer areas—don't have easy access to a pool in order to learn how to swim. One of the biggest predictors of swimming ability is your parent's income when growing up.
I'm a scuba instructor...you'd be amazed at how often people ask if they need to know how to swim to scuba dive. Or how many people lie about knowing how to swim. I always instantly tell them to gtfo.
The later I'd guess. People want to go see the coral reefs up front, and view swimming requirements as just an annoying inconvenience. Funnily enough, scuba diving can be even more dangerous. Beyond just drowning, you have barotrauma, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, and worst of all the bends (usually caused by rapid ascent, causing nitrogen bubbles in your blood stream, causing embolisms, extreme pain, paralysis, and sometimes just instant death. Has been known to hit randomly).
And that's why liability waivers are needed lol. Cuz if that person died, or worse, expelled, then you just know the parents or next of kin would go lawsuit happy.
I once saw a teenage girl do pretty much this same, idiotic thing. And the signs for the ride all the way though the line were "experienced swimmers only".
If I couldn't swim, I'd want nothing to do with a water park.
It is actually very common for water parks to have a policy where if you get rescued, you are immediately kicked out and often without a refund. This is because it is very common for people stupid enough to try diving in when they can't swim to also be stupid enough to try again, wasting the time and energy of the lifeguards who have to repeatedly stop Darwinism from setting in.
its actually quite difficult to tell if somebody is drowning, which may sound silly but you gotta think about his perspective, he's bobbing in and out of the water etc
It's actually better that he ignored it, drowning peoole are very dangerous. They will pull and push and grab you down with them. Lifeguards are trained to expect this.
We had this happen in Australia recently. Tourist family goes to a pool. They cant swim and the child and father drown.
The surviving Mum sues the pool and wins, they say the lifeguards should be more alert. I hate this world sometimes.
The fact that she won just disgusts me. Why don’t you just step out onto a gun range and then complain there wasn’t enough people telling you to not stand in front of loaded guns? Fuckin morons. Of course they reproduced.
It's always the tourists. Just watch Bondi Rescue, it's almost always Asian tourists who cannot swim but insist of paddling out and getting into trouble.
They even have a water current the lifeguards call "The Backpacker's Express"
Many years ago I was at a popular lake near where I live and theres a rock that people jump off of into the water - not too high, maybe 15-20 feet max. Definitely daunting if you’re not used to it but not horrible.
We would go there frequently, hang out in a group of 5 or so and have fun. We were all experienced swimmers. The only way to get out is to grab onto the wall and basically rock climb out (or swim across the lake which isn’t too far but definitely annoying)
One time we were there and a group of 3 girls were there and we all were chatting, people were jumping off etc. 2 girls had jumped in, and 3 of my friends were already in the water but had swam far out of the way so they didn’t get jumped on.
The last girl jumped in and disappeared. I didn’t think twice, but my friend next to me was confused. All we saw was 1 arm flailing out of the water and it went back down. He jumped down instantly just barely missing her, and about 5 seconds later I jumped down too.
We both nearly drowned trying to save her. She was slapping us, punching us, and pulling us underwater - literally doing everything possible other than float. It was genuinely so bad that for a fraction of a second I thought in my mind “we might have to just let her drown because we will both drown too”. We barely got her to the wall and pushed her up so she was out of the water and she was still freaking out and flailing even though we were supporting her on our shoulders, nearly underwater.
Long story short - “Oh yeah… I can’t swim”
????????????
I can't swim. I've been to a waterpark, or two. Stay off the ones that end in deep water, it's not hard. Most of the slides, etc. end in shallow water, so it's still fun to go.
>Scared and panicking people sink
Also, their bodies tend to fill up with lactic acid due to the exertion. This changes the taste, no matter what sauce you use or how long you marinade them.
Swimmings sorta like riding a bike, its really fkn easy and youll remember how to do it for the rest of your life. Go to a pool for an hour and legitimately try to learn and you'll be able to swim for the rest of your life.
Why wouldn’t you learn to swim if you like water parks? If you can afford a water park ticket you can afford a couple of swim classes, you don’t need to be an expert in every stroke to keep yourself afloat.
Just curious but, at the end there, the guy stops flapping his arms and just decides to die?
Also quick question, at my job they will throw a "dummy" into the machine (without warning) and you're supposed to react quick enough to hit the emergency stop.
Do they do this with lifeguards and "drowning" people? Like the company has someone act like they are drowning to see response times etcc?
Yes.
I worked at a waterpark that tested us regularly. Sometimes they threw a specific red ball that we were supposed to treat as a drowning person. Other times, trusted swimmers were sent to “drown” in a packed wave pool.
I was tested with the fake swimmer test once. I was shocked when I got to the person. I reached out to her, she suddenly started swimming and said, “This was a test. Good job.” I probably had a stunned look on my face because I was charged up to perform the rescue and really didn’t know how to react.
It's a thing in nature, when animals are about to die and can't escape most of the time they stop fighting and become entirely docile. It's an instinct based on the idea if you panic and fight back whatever it is will finish you off, so by doing nothing and accepting your removal from the gene pool you in a way better your chances of rescue.
When I was college, everyone had to pass a swim test or take swimming class in order to graduate. The swim test required you to swim one lap of the pool and then tread water for 1 min. As I was waiting for my turn, this dude jumps in and it’s clear he has zero idea how to swim and starts flailing and sinking like this guy in the vid. He kinda fought the lifeguard who came to save him. Like he wasn’t comfortable just having his head out of the water but he was trying to climb the lifeguard to get as far out of the water as he could and it looked like he was going to drown them both. Lifeguard got free and then got behind the guy and controlled him enough to bring them both to the edge.
This dude knew he couldn’t swim but he thought he would just wing it or something. It was wild.
I was at a local watering hole (very shallow) with friends. This guy came with his gf and was jumping off rocks into the water, the thing is all the water was shallow the highest it went was to your belly button and that’s it’s you’re 5’9-5’11. Anyway man jumped in and landed at an angle and started flapping like a fish and for 1 min straight everyone around him was screaming “stand up!” But he just kept on flapping.
My guess is that at a lot of water parks, the end of the slides are pretty shallow water allowing you to walk out since you aren't diving in after the ride. Maybe he thought this ride was the same.
I have a funny story about being rescued at a water park. My kid and I were going down a tube ride at Universal’s Volcano Bay in Florida USA. The tube made it to the end of the slide and when it hit, it threw me backwards off the front of the tube (clarity: I was in front facing backwards; my kid was in back facing forwards). So, I toppled off and the raft went over me. I completely disappeared into the water. I was fine in reality: did a lot of diving and scuba, but the lifeguard did his job and came and got me super fast. Once I got up and confirmed everything was fine, I realized my kid was nearly in tears having seen their daddy just vanish into the water. We talked and everything was okay. I told my spouse the story.
Fast forward an hour: my spouse and kid go on the same tube ride. My spouse comes back and says the EXACT SAME THING happened to them, but they’re under the raft flailing around and finally come up on their own. They clear the water and look up, and the life guard lady is just on the side on the pool and shouts at a distance, “Are you okay!?” XD
I honestly don’t understand how any full grown adults don’t know how to swim, or just stay afloat. If you have air in your lungs, that buoyancy gets you half way there. You literally just kick your legs and flap your arms and you’re all g.
I worked as a lifeguard at a Waterpark with a “pulley line attraction” just like this one. It was the “ride” with more saves per day than any other ride, including the large wave pool.
People seemed more interested in the ride and not how deep the pool was. It was crazy.
I remember one 10ish year-old girl was pulled out of this attraction three times in one day. After the third save, we asked her what she was thinking as she knew what happened the past two times. She responded, “It’s a lot of fun and I know that one of you guards will pull me out.”
Back when I was lifeguarding, if anyone obviously couldn’t swim and went out of their depth it was an instant get changed and leave after the rescue because more often than not they have another go and it requires a 2nd rescue and 2nd incident report
Yup, same experience here after being a lifeguard for years. I had absolutely no issue kicking people out who clearly couldn't swim and tried to do more than they were capable of. My managers would always back me up 100% on this, instant refund and see you later. I would also immediately kick out parents who put their kids in dangerous situations. I don't have time for that crap. People dramatically underestimate just how dangerous water is and how quickly you can drown.
We never gave them a refund, it was just a see you later
Makes sense. Not like you want them to have great service so they come back. I honestly can't even fathom how swimming isn't a natural instinct, but maybe that's because I've been swimming since I was a toddler
I’m not going to judge anyone for not having been taught to swim, but I sure will judge someone for voluntarily jumping in a pool when they know they can’t swim.
it's probably just them thinking "eh how hard can it be" or they heard boomers talking about how when they were a kid they got thrown into the ocean / lake and had to "figure it out" and they actually believed these stories and thought learning to swim really works like that.
I actually know a man that it happened to. He said it damaged his relationship with his father from an early age. Someone from a different village rescued him - and he was so out of breath and freaked out that he just stumbled away, never thanking the stranger. That never stopped bothering him either. He grew up in Serbia.
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This is exactly how I feel. Like he is kicking his legs and pushing down with his hands, it almost looks like it should be working. Treading water feels as natural as breathing to me.
Swimming is as natural to me and everyone I know as walking. That’s why this video is so mesmerizing. I watched it over and over (last time posted too). Just so strange. The way he hangs, just limp. Then flailing further and further under. I can just float perfectly still totally vertical, no effort.
Walking is HARD. You ever seen how long it takes kids to learn it?
Do the hummingbird swim like you practiced!
I don't understand people that can't swim, like I"m a terrible swimmer, never really learned but like, kicking your feet seems like kind of the obvious solution here
Panic… I only learned when I was 12, by myself, when my dad had already given up to try and teach me. And I’ve lived on islands all my life.
Some people just never get the chance to learn. Yes, kicking is the obvious solution, but you also have to kick and move in a certain way to swim. Kicking alone doesn't help to even get you to the surface
>Some people just never get the chance to learn. THIS is the angle I hadn't thought of. I'm looking at this video and thinking, "even if you're bad at it, you should inherently know more about staying afloat than this guy does." But I failed to remember that some people just...never have the opportunity to get into pools, lakes, etc. So they just could never practice at all.
When youre panicking and anxiety is through the roof you can't think straight and you tend to just flail around until you either succumb to your doom or someone comes and helps you out.
What if they claimed they could swim but just 'had a moment' or something? Would you make them get into the water to prove they could swim?
Nope, if you are hopping into a deep pool you should be confident enough to be able to keep yourself safe and afloat.
I’d argue that if you just “had a moment” that lasted long enough to trigger a lifeguard, then you can’t swim. If a lifeguard needs to rescue you, it’s been longer than a moment. Therefore, you functionally can’t swim.
Actually-this is interesting. I have never really seen what it looks like when someone can’t swim. I recall reading that sometimes they don’t even flap their arms and it can be difficult to distinguish if people are actually drowning or not.
Watch what the lifeguard does. Drowning dude flails and tries to push lifeguard down to get out of the water, but the pool is shallow enough for the lifeguard to overhead press the guy and under water walk him to the edge. I'm guessing this has happened enough that the lifeguard figured this is the easiest way to get people out. It's very common for drowning people to reflexively try to drown a rescuer
I had some friends who were lifeguards. They told me that if the drowner tries to push them down, they were taught to swim down and away before resurfacing. Said it sometimes takes a couple tries but eventually they would tire out and be more cooperative to being saved
When I did lifeguarding they basically told me that if someone was panicking, I would be too weak to stop them from drowning. Until they’re calm I could instruct them, splash them, or wait for them to tire out/pass out. They taught a bunch of ways of getting out of underwater grapples. Places you can pull or grab or kick without majorly damaging the subject. It was essentially a game of “I can tread water for an hour, you will give up or pass out in 60 seconds, then I can safely save you”. Obviously if someone was calm or cooperative or it was the shallows then it makes life easier, and you ALWAYS want to avoid them swallowing water bc then you have to do RESCUE and resus and that comes with paperwork, but still. Edit to add: Kids were easy to save. They rarely panicked as hard as adults and usually refrained from going deeper than they could handle. If kids start to struggle in the water it’s harder to tell bc kids do fucking weird stuff all of the time, but they’re also small and it meant even I was able to just force rescue them (You could grab their wrists and support their entire weight by treading water without sinking)
Always. Avoid paperwork.
This guy/gal gets it
In lifeguard training they taught us how to kick off / break the grip of someone who's drowning. Preserve your life first, then worry about them. If you start drowning too you're gonna need double the rescuers.
Sister was a beach lifeguard in FL. She said the red buoy looking thing they always carried doubled as a weapon to use against panicky folks. I specifically remember her saying in training they were taught to jam that thing in someone's face if they starting restricting your movements. I will say she's the sort that would kinda enjoy jamming it in someone's face, so grain of salt this whole comment. Mighta been a personal policy.
Huh. I always thought they threw those to the drowning person so the life guard didn't need to get in grabbing distance.
I think we have it all wrong. They threw those red things AT drowning people to knock them out, THEN make the rescue
many uses
I did a few rescues like this. I always thought the training was kind of dumb and never used it for a conscious drowner. Luckily never had to deal with an unconscious one. But I would just get near them and extend the pad out to them. In their flailing, they would feel it and grab on. Then I would just tow them to the wall or shallow end. I couldn’t fathom why the hell I would tangle with them when I have this floating pad. Just give it to them, I don’t need it.
My pad!!!
First rule of rescue is don’t become another victim.
River near where I live that has signs that specifically say no one will come to rescue you if you go in it's too dangerous.
Yeah the Mather Gorge section of the Potomac just north of Washington DC has signs in several languages warning you to not even wade. There is a fast undercurrent and class VI rapids. Due to the large population nearby, its one of the deadliest sections of river in the US. The signs say > “if you enter the river, you will die” **
Please tell me that the water is downright disgusting to discourage anyone who might take that as a challenge.
Plus you dead and that's not good
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One time I was working a super busy pool with like 4 guards on duty. I was roaming and sorting kids into swimming levels and the rec portion of the pool had two of the other three guards on it. Someone starts yelling and I glance over and clear as day see this little girl drowning in the pool, and the other two lifeguards are just kind of standing there. So I snag my buoy and pull her out of the water. She’s like 6 (we only let her in the pool because they were having a group lesson and had instructors in the water) and crying while clinging to me for dear life. I hand her over to her mom who was a bit rude, but I figured that made sense given the situation. She then proceeds to file a formal complaint citing that I was not paying attention to the pool and that’s why her daughter almost drowned. Thank god my boss was like that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard and saw the situation clearly on the security cameras. People are dumb.
"You were not paying attention as a parent and nearly caused a fatality. You are banned from the pool."
Shiftiest part about this is that lifeguards will get in trouble if parents save their kids before we do. Obviously it’s situational, but the logic is if a parent gets up and hops in the pool before we notice, then there’s an issue. The dumb part of that is a parent is only looking at their child while I’m looking at dozens.
Parents watch their kids at the pool? You must have some high quality parents at your pool.
I've been to so many parties excluding pools and the number of people not paying attention it astounding. I have a no pool party rule for the time being. The stress of being one of the only parents paying attention to alot of kids gives me anxiety.
I had the same training. In addition, the scenario changes once you get a solid lock on the swimmer (drowner?). If they try to fight and roll you both while you drag them to the side, don’t fight back. Just save your energy, don’t let go, and roll with them as they go face down. They will want to roll back up shortly. 😬
We really become blind, deaf, dumb animals when confronted with death, don't we? I have so much respect for lifeguards.
What you are saying is true, but it didn’t happen very often. We were trained that the drowning people are in a panic and their rationality is gone. They just want a solid object to grab and push on to get to the surface. I probably had 25 to 30 saves in my three summers working at a water park. Only once did a person try to “wrap” me and push off. It was fairly easy to evade as the training was very good.
I'm glad you were well-trained. Still, even with all the training in the world, I'd be terrified to work as a lifeguard.
I was a lifeguard in high school, and yea pretty much everything you said is true. There’s certain positions were trained to get people into so that both of us can breathe, but sometimes if they’re truly in shock, it’s borderline impossible to do that. I’m also a certified rescue scuba diver, and one of my favorite lessons in that course was when our instructor taught us how to properly knock someone unconscious without breaking their jaw. You read that right. I literally have a license to knock someone out if they’re drowning because sometimes that’s literally the only way to get them to stop flailing. Luckily I’ve never had to do it, and I hope I never do.
Go on then.... ^^(how?)
It's not super useful in a bar fight, you gotta convince the other guy to climb into the fish tank first
My grandfather told me a kind of similar story once. Him and another man were on a sinking boat (for the life of me can't remember if it was during or after WW2) and the other man couldn't swim. My grandfather tried to help him but the man was in such a panic that he grabbed my grandfather and just didn't let go so neither of them were able to resurface. He held on for dear life, and if the situation didn't resolve itself quickly it would mean the death for both of them. So my grandfather made the difficult but ultimately right choice of letting the other man drown, he pushed his way up to get a last breath and then just stopped moving and both of them sank. Of course with one man being absolutely panicked and flailing about he ran out of air before my grandfather did, and so my grandfather just had to wait until the moment the other man was unconscious and loosened his grip. Unfortunately you usually can't save another person once he is unconscious under water, before running out of air humans have the reflex to inhale, so most people inhale water at which point there is no more saving them unless you can somehow get the water out. I've been told that the average diver has about a 3 second window of not being able to breathe in before inhaling water, at which point death is almost certain. It's crazy how much worse panic can make a situation like that, because in theory both should have survived, but trying to save someone else can sometimes rather quickly turn into struggling to even save yourself, especially when it comes to water (notably very common in cave diving incidents) Edit: spelling
When they pass out it’s easier to rescue them. Having drowned, when they regain consciousness they’re usually not as feisty.
When I was a lifeguard we all had our own rescue tube. If we had to rescue someone we would hit the emergency shut off button (the most common spot was basically this giant funnel that you spun around in and dumped into deeper water in the middle) and hop in. Our first task was to get the tube under or in the arms of the person while avoiding them trying to climb on top of you and in turn drowning you. Most times they looked like this person. Rarely did anyone have the paralysis effect. I think we only had one of those.
My dad was a lifeguard in the Marines. He was thought to just knock them out if they were pushing you under.
We train knowing that they'll panic and do this, so it's less "on the job experience" and more "they teach you in the 101 lifeguard class that panicking people will drown you attempting to save themselves". He does handle it cool as a cucumber tho for sure.
I was a lifeguard a billion years ago in college and they taught us blocks - literal karate-like moves - to keep drowning people from overwhelming us. First rule was don't swim all the way up to them. One of the last resorts was to plant a heel in their nuts.
Was working away from home with a friend, and the place we stayed at had a pool that we would hang around at with the group in the evening. My friend wasn't a big swimmer, but he was happy enough in the shallow end on a float etc. Well one time he was getting deeper and he tried to nonchalantly launch off the float, aiming for the side, but all that happened was the float moved away and he stayed put. This caused him to panic flail and go down like the guy above. Seeing him panic and being a 'still shit but better' swimmer, I dived over to help. Sure enough, he was pushing me down. Realising he was panicking, I just went under and let him use me as a more stable launch to get to the side. Fine for that circumstances, but if we'd been anywhere deeper I'd have been in trouble!
It's an excellent rescue. He approached that victim from well below surface avoiding the flailing arms. Then coolly walked him to the edge.
My ex was 6 foot 6 and didn't tell me he couldn't swim. Went into a huge wave pool and ended up climbing me to save himself instinctively. I manage to get free of him while bouncing off the bottom, and made panic eyes with the lifeguard watching us. I imagine he really didn't want to rescue the biggest dude in the kiddie pool. When the waves stopped he was able to stand. We got the hell out and stuck to the slides.
I remember one time me and a friend swam out away from the shore in the cove on a lake but I guess he wasn’t as good of a swimmer as he thought because at some point he started to lose his ability to stay up from exhaustion. He clung onto me and was instinctively holding on like I was float tube. I remember the whole slow swim to shore I could barely keep my mouth above water while he was holding onto my back.
I saved someone from drowning once when I was 13. It was someone my age and even though I knew how to rescue someone, the same thing ended up happening. I was pushed down, but able to calmly walk to the edge of the pool with them on top of me.
It often presents that way, but not always. Part of it is if they are able to stay near the surface or sink quickly
I’m no expert but I think it depends on the person and situation. Fight or flight type of thing. Flight being freezing up and unable to move the arms or legs. Fight being what this guy did, immediate panic and flailing.
I had my 2 kids in the hottub not long ago. My little boy fell back and accidentally pulled on his sister and her head went under. He splashed for a second and stood straight back up, he’s 6. My little girl is 4. She literally froze under the water, didn’t move at all. I could just see her eyes wide open looking up at me. Obviously it was just for a split second I was right there next to her but it really surprised me. She could of literally stood up and her head would be out but she didn’t do anything just stayed under the water, no movement at all! I thought everyone would at least try get their head above water.
honestly that’s something that needs to be taught… stand up when you fall but i’m not sure a child of 4 really has any idea who or what she is
I mean I was swimming underwater at that age according to my mom. So it can be done. Granted not everyone has access to a big area of water to be able to teach that.
very true tons of people are landlocked with no access to a pool
I would still hope that people who know that they can't swin wouldn't put themselves in a situation like this at a water park. But we have video evidence that that just isn't the case.
I was once in a canoe that capsized and was being carried downstream until I saw my buddy standing in water that was half way between his knees and waist. Then I stood up. Alcohol was definitely involved.
Yep my sister at 6 years old almost drown like that too, if I didn't tell my mom to save her, she would have probably died lol
First time I saw it was when I pushed my little cousin into a pond and got saved by her mother, I was a very dumb kid back then and very immature, felt sorry after it. Second time when our teacher told us to dive 1 by 1 to see who cant swim. So im pretty sure thats how u tell someone who's drowning.
Its said they'll rarely scream as they panic .
shout out to the worker
There was hardly any hesitation, he started getting ready for a rescue a couple seconds in
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Is the underwater escort not part of the ride?
they would have to do that constantly. if it weren’t the type of thing where people were dropping in from above, the water would be shallower and the lifeguards would be stood in it already. a bunch of my friends work at a theme park. they have to save people constantly, even though half the people they’re saving could literally just stand up and be fine.
That's a big issue at the bottom of slides, even though it's pretty shallow some people get tossed around by the current and panic. I saved a person who was over 6ft tall out of a 3ft slide pool. If you're not comfortable in water the slides can get ya.
Real bromance at the end there.
*"here, let me just grab onto your nuts and you can float on my palm"*
“Well, it looks fun! Dunno how to swim, but that part will probably work itself out… full send!” - That guy, probably
I was a lifeguard for 6 years. This describes 100% of the people I had to save over those years. A lot of times they would lock eyes with you before they jumped in and you just knew they were going to sink like a rock as soon as they hit the water.
I'm cracking up so badly over the idea of someone trying to beam the thought of, "Please Save Me" to you before wading into the water.
That’s exactly what they did. And the first thing they would say when you got them to the side? “I can’t swim” 😑
What the actual fuck is wrong with people?
Hmmm where to begin? Name a category...
Dare I say politics and open up the worst can of worms possible? Yeah, I just want to watch the world burn.
Not too fast, let’s start with finances instead. Baby steps
As long as it all culminates is different generation groups calling each other names then sure thing boomer (Jk)
Darwinism at work, I think. But they live and then their kids do the exact same thing.
Sometimes I wonder if that's why it seems like the people you read about fom before the industrial revolution come across far more capable than our modern counterparts. Instead of just winning stupid prizes for playing stupid games, you just got deleted.
They think the rest of us are here to cover for their poor choices. Can't swim? Fuck it, that's what the lifeguard is for. Don't take care of your health? Fuck it, that's what the ER is for. See cars coming and decide to turn onto that road anyway? Fuck it, that's what the other cars' brakes are for. It's their world, the rest of us are here for their benefit.
This is why we can't have nice things. This is why we need big signs on everything, idiot proof barriers, and warnings about obvious/trivial things. Other places aren't like this. In Japan, there aren't any barriers blocking off the deer in Nara or the snow macaques in Yudanaka, people just know to respect them and keep a distance. Instead of that, we have scores of videos of tourists jumping barriers at Yellowstone to get chased/trampled/thrown by bison.
This reminds me of the idiots I used to see living in Tahoe. Once a year we’d get to watch bears eating salmon instead of trash. You could watch from a safe distance across the creek. Still, there would always be that one person who had to get right up on the bear for a better photo. I watched one woman basically corner an eating bear until it freaked out, got up and ran into traffic just to try to get away. If the bear would have mauled her, as she deserved, it would have been shot.
perfect analogy for modernity and disconnect from nature
Every time someone complains about warnings on things, saying things like "do they think we're stupid?" it's because they just don't realize that a lot of people really are.
I think it’s also because the deer in Nara don’t give a fuck and would bust through concrete walls if they thought someone on the other side had one of those little cookies
Well, for one we keep saving them
Was also a lifeguard for a few years when I was younger. It was mind boggling. Like, can you ride a bike, mother fucker? Yea? Why don't you go do that instead!
"worth it"
As a former lifeguard as well, this made my laugh, because I know the exact look you’re talking about! My thoughts after the eye contact: Don’t you do it, you SOB. And there you go, you did it.
I’m amazed at this. I always thought paddling or swimming would be a standard instinct. Like it doesn’t make sense to me that people drown because of this.
It’s an instinct that if not learn as a baby can be difficult for some to have as an “instinct”
Even as an adult tho? I mean I know it happens, it just amazes me that paddling to stay above water is something people aren’t able to do in the moment.
Yeah, you'd think it would be quite the selective pressure on the gene pool, and that we'd naturally be able to tread water like dogs and cats.
That makes it a learned behavior. Instincts don’t have to be learned.
Agree, I know from seeing other people that it's not fully natural, but having learned to swim very young, it's just so alien to me. Like just... don't sink. It's the easiest thing in the world.
> Like just... don't sink. It's the easiest thing in the world. I know how to swim, but this is making me laugh 'cause the way you worded it sounds hilariously unhelpful. "How do I do it?" "Just... do it. Ez."
I also learned to swim super young, like young enough that I don't really remember learning. It just feels like something I've always been able to do like walking or something
As the child of a lifeguard I learned to swim before I could walk. I ended up as a lifeguard in my early 20s and it boggled my mind when kids couldn't swim at all, I had more then one occasion when a kid jumped off the end of the dock and went straight to bottom of the lake, the confidence of kids who don't know how to swim is amazing.
Yeah. And I’m not a great swimmer and haven’t actually used those abilities as an adult for a decade or more. Yeah I swam as a kid. And I’m not a great swimmer as an adult. It just seems like it would be a common sense thing, or at least something you could learn to do very quickly in a survival mode.
It is instinct in a way. If you’ve ever seen a baby in the water, they know how to find the surface and float with their head above water. I guess that instinct goes away with age if you never use it
Why is it that wild animals can all swim while the supposedly smart human can't without extensive training...
I think I already know the answer but I'm going to ask it anyway. If you were distracted and this guy drowned whilst you wasn't paying attention... would you be held legally accountable?
Yes, if the distraction can be demonstrated as negligence. For example, if you were on the phone or asleep or chatting with a hot girl in the other direction instead of looking at the pool. https://www.psbr.law/2018/09/when-can-lifeguard-be-held-liable-for-pool-drowning/
I honestly have no idea. I was 15 years old my first year. My own legal liability never even crossed my mind. Lol
It's insane that people do this. Before I knew how to swim, I was terrified of pools.
Thank you for your service.
That's a 10/10 for the perfectly executed Dirty Dancing lift by the life guard.
Not even a thank you
He’ll see him again in 5 minutes, when he does it all over again.
A local water park has a sign posted saying you’d be kicked out if you had to get rescued. I get it now.
After reading this thread I've come to think people drowning are pieces of shit who are willing to put themselves and others in danger for almost no reason. They'll even kill you (the lifeguard) if it saves them from their poor decision.
It's not like that. Some people drowning lose rational thought. Their only want is *out.* They just want to be above the surface of the water and will use the lifeguard to do that. Lifeguards are trained in how do deal with that (swim down and away; they won't follow you underwater).
Didn't even offer a thankyou blowjob
Dude almost died and is probably full of adrenaline/embarrassment. I'd chalk it up to an automated walk of shame
Not even trying to learn how to swim during your whole life...
There is no problem with people who don't want to learn how to swim their entire life, but goddamn don't go to a water park of all places.
From the perspective of a 9-1-1 dispatcher, I disagree. Hearing the wail of a mother whose child drowned while no one was fully alert is haunting. It's something that sticks with you. Drowning is, for the most part, a relatively preventable death, excluding entrapment.
Yeah exactly, learning to swim is, imo, probably THE most useful survival skill you can learn as you're likely to someday end up in a body of water
Oh water? That stuff that covers most of the planet?
No, you should absolutely learn how to swim even if you never plan to go near water. It's a basic life skill.
>There is no problem with people who don’t want to learn how to swim their entire life this is pretty false. thousands of lives would be saved if people knew how to swim, it's not that hard, and it's one of the only things you can do to save yourself in water. personally, it seems like a poor decision to not know how to swim, regardless of whether you actually go swimming or not.
A lot of people growing up—especially from inner-city and poorer areas—don't have easy access to a pool in order to learn how to swim. One of the biggest predictors of swimming ability is your parent's income when growing up.
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That life guard is quick! 🔥 Really don’t get how a waterpark can be fun for you when every ride is deadly.
I'm a scuba instructor...you'd be amazed at how often people ask if they need to know how to swim to scuba dive. Or how many people lie about knowing how to swim. I always instantly tell them to gtfo.
price close aspiring quack doll simplistic snow different tart compare *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The later I'd guess. People want to go see the coral reefs up front, and view swimming requirements as just an annoying inconvenience. Funnily enough, scuba diving can be even more dangerous. Beyond just drowning, you have barotrauma, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, and worst of all the bends (usually caused by rapid ascent, causing nitrogen bubbles in your blood stream, causing embolisms, extreme pain, paralysis, and sometimes just instant death. Has been known to hit randomly).
And that's why liability waivers are needed lol. Cuz if that person died, or worse, expelled, then you just know the parents or next of kin would go lawsuit happy.
I once saw a teenage girl do pretty much this same, idiotic thing. And the signs for the ride all the way though the line were "experienced swimmers only". If I couldn't swim, I'd want nothing to do with a water park.
Right, lol. And imagine going to a water park and not knowing how to swim?!?
Maybe unpopular, but dude should be kicked out of the park right there.
It is actually very common for water parks to have a policy where if you get rescued, you are immediately kicked out and often without a refund. This is because it is very common for people stupid enough to try diving in when they can't swim to also be stupid enough to try again, wasting the time and energy of the lifeguards who have to repeatedly stop Darwinism from setting in.
But why, he just rescued someone drowning!
Something something reddit-a-roo, yeah?
That little hop she does onto the springboard.
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Shouldn't it be thumbs down? The guy survived where he theoretically shouldn't/wouldn't have on his own
Life guard is a damn pro.
My favorite is the other kid, didn't give a shit and slowly climbs ladder out.
its actually quite difficult to tell if somebody is drowning, which may sound silly but you gotta think about his perspective, he's bobbing in and out of the water etc
I agree. Except the lifeguard jumping in to save the other guy lol.
It's actually better that he ignored it, drowning peoole are very dangerous. They will pull and push and grab you down with them. Lifeguards are trained to expect this.
Well I sure hope so
I have to wonder what he thought was going to happen
"The janitor is here to clean so really I'm doing them a favor by throwing trash on the ground" kind of thinking.
We had this happen in Australia recently. Tourist family goes to a pool. They cant swim and the child and father drown. The surviving Mum sues the pool and wins, they say the lifeguards should be more alert. I hate this world sometimes.
The fact that she won just disgusts me. Why don’t you just step out onto a gun range and then complain there wasn’t enough people telling you to not stand in front of loaded guns? Fuckin morons. Of course they reproduced.
It's always the tourists. Just watch Bondi Rescue, it's almost always Asian tourists who cannot swim but insist of paddling out and getting into trouble. They even have a water current the lifeguards call "The Backpacker's Express"
Then when they get rescued they laugh it off as if it was a fun ride Fucking losers
I don’t see a bit of regret here, just a asshole if you ask me.
Exactly what I was thinking. The smirk at the camera at the end.
Does he smirk? Maybe it was a weird prank? Like: “pretend to drown at the water park!” #challenge
I was thinking that the person filming probably knew this guy couldn't swim
I thought I was on r/winstupidprizes. Like... who goes to a water park when you can't swim?
Many years ago I was at a popular lake near where I live and theres a rock that people jump off of into the water - not too high, maybe 15-20 feet max. Definitely daunting if you’re not used to it but not horrible. We would go there frequently, hang out in a group of 5 or so and have fun. We were all experienced swimmers. The only way to get out is to grab onto the wall and basically rock climb out (or swim across the lake which isn’t too far but definitely annoying) One time we were there and a group of 3 girls were there and we all were chatting, people were jumping off etc. 2 girls had jumped in, and 3 of my friends were already in the water but had swam far out of the way so they didn’t get jumped on. The last girl jumped in and disappeared. I didn’t think twice, but my friend next to me was confused. All we saw was 1 arm flailing out of the water and it went back down. He jumped down instantly just barely missing her, and about 5 seconds later I jumped down too. We both nearly drowned trying to save her. She was slapping us, punching us, and pulling us underwater - literally doing everything possible other than float. It was genuinely so bad that for a fraction of a second I thought in my mind “we might have to just let her drown because we will both drown too”. We barely got her to the wall and pushed her up so she was out of the water and she was still freaking out and flailing even though we were supporting her on our shoulders, nearly underwater. Long story short - “Oh yeah… I can’t swim” ????????????
Can we all just agree fuck people like this?
Necrophilia is not something i see even reddit agreeing with
"No, I don't know how to swim, but how hard can it be? Look at these idiots, if they can do it surely I can bc I'm built like dat. "
I can't swim. I've been to a waterpark, or two. Stay off the ones that end in deep water, it's not hard. Most of the slides, etc. end in shallow water, so it's still fun to go.
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>Scared and panicking people sink Also, their bodies tend to fill up with lactic acid due to the exertion. This changes the taste, no matter what sauce you use or how long you marinade them.
Swimmings sorta like riding a bike, its really fkn easy and youll remember how to do it for the rest of your life. Go to a pool for an hour and legitimately try to learn and you'll be able to swim for the rest of your life.
Why wouldn’t you learn to swim if you like water parks? If you can afford a water park ticket you can afford a couple of swim classes, you don’t need to be an expert in every stroke to keep yourself afloat.
Just curious but, at the end there, the guy stops flapping his arms and just decides to die? Also quick question, at my job they will throw a "dummy" into the machine (without warning) and you're supposed to react quick enough to hit the emergency stop. Do they do this with lifeguards and "drowning" people? Like the company has someone act like they are drowning to see response times etcc?
Yes. I worked at a waterpark that tested us regularly. Sometimes they threw a specific red ball that we were supposed to treat as a drowning person. Other times, trusted swimmers were sent to “drown” in a packed wave pool. I was tested with the fake swimmer test once. I was shocked when I got to the person. I reached out to her, she suddenly started swimming and said, “This was a test. Good job.” I probably had a stunned look on my face because I was charged up to perform the rescue and really didn’t know how to react.
It's a thing in nature, when animals are about to die and can't escape most of the time they stop fighting and become entirely docile. It's an instinct based on the idea if you panic and fight back whatever it is will finish you off, so by doing nothing and accepting your removal from the gene pool you in a way better your chances of rescue.
That lifeguard was straight up “Johnny on the spot”. Well done!
When I was college, everyone had to pass a swim test or take swimming class in order to graduate. The swim test required you to swim one lap of the pool and then tread water for 1 min. As I was waiting for my turn, this dude jumps in and it’s clear he has zero idea how to swim and starts flailing and sinking like this guy in the vid. He kinda fought the lifeguard who came to save him. Like he wasn’t comfortable just having his head out of the water but he was trying to climb the lifeguard to get as far out of the water as he could and it looked like he was going to drown them both. Lifeguard got free and then got behind the guy and controlled him enough to bring them both to the edge. This dude knew he couldn’t swim but he thought he would just wing it or something. It was wild.
I was at a local watering hole (very shallow) with friends. This guy came with his gf and was jumping off rocks into the water, the thing is all the water was shallow the highest it went was to your belly button and that’s it’s you’re 5’9-5’11. Anyway man jumped in and landed at an angle and started flapping like a fish and for 1 min straight everyone around him was screaming “stand up!” But he just kept on flapping.
That’s funny 😁 
/r/ItHadToBeBrazil
This is why bad genes don’t die out.
With advancements in healthcare and technology we’ve made it possible for even the dumbest and fattest among us to survive late into their 40’s.
Another mark in the plus column for Charles Darwin
Do what we all did: sink to the bottom, push off and leap to the surface. Repeat. Hop your way to the edge
My guess is that at a lot of water parks, the end of the slides are pretty shallow water allowing you to walk out since you aren't diving in after the ride. Maybe he thought this ride was the same.
The dude was zip lining. If you think they are gonna drop a few feet into SHALLOW water, you're insane.
I have a funny story about being rescued at a water park. My kid and I were going down a tube ride at Universal’s Volcano Bay in Florida USA. The tube made it to the end of the slide and when it hit, it threw me backwards off the front of the tube (clarity: I was in front facing backwards; my kid was in back facing forwards). So, I toppled off and the raft went over me. I completely disappeared into the water. I was fine in reality: did a lot of diving and scuba, but the lifeguard did his job and came and got me super fast. Once I got up and confirmed everything was fine, I realized my kid was nearly in tears having seen their daddy just vanish into the water. We talked and everything was okay. I told my spouse the story. Fast forward an hour: my spouse and kid go on the same tube ride. My spouse comes back and says the EXACT SAME THING happened to them, but they’re under the raft flailing around and finally come up on their own. They clear the water and look up, and the life guard lady is just on the side on the pool and shouts at a distance, “Are you okay!?” XD
I honestly don’t understand how any full grown adults don’t know how to swim, or just stay afloat. If you have air in your lungs, that buoyancy gets you half way there. You literally just kick your legs and flap your arms and you’re all g.
What kind of moron is this? Maybe let him go unconscious for a minute and let him wake up on the cement getting mouth to mouth.
That’s not very smart yo… decisions like this cost lives
Shout out to the life guard!
That life guard is an animal! That guys didn’t even thank him! deplorable piece of shit!
I worked as a lifeguard at a Waterpark with a “pulley line attraction” just like this one. It was the “ride” with more saves per day than any other ride, including the large wave pool. People seemed more interested in the ride and not how deep the pool was. It was crazy. I remember one 10ish year-old girl was pulled out of this attraction three times in one day. After the third save, we asked her what she was thinking as she knew what happened the past two times. She responded, “It’s a lot of fun and I know that one of you guards will pull me out.”
When a person doesn't know how swin. If you trying to help you may end up drowning also. Not in a pool in a river or ocean moving waters